Google and Levi’s ‘smart jacket’ will let you control your phone by touching your sleeve

Called the Commuter, the smart jacket has a pair of Bluetooth cuffs that once paired with your smartphone allow you to control a lot of your phone’s functionality with just your coat. For instance, you can turn up the volume on the tunes you’re listening to or answer a call by swiping on your jacket, without ever having to take your phone out of your pocket.

A tap on your wrist can help you advance through navigation directions while you’re biking around town, and a swipe up on the cuffs can even help you discover what’s around you if you want to grab a bite to eat along your ride.

The idea is that it’s something you would use to stay connected during your commute, say on a bike ride from Caltrain to your office in the FiDi, rather than something you’d use all the time. While it looks like it’s a little awkward to swipe around your wrists while tooling around town, the concept is considerably better than trying to pull your phone out in traffic to adjust the volume on your music or dismiss a call. For commuters it could be a great way to stay connected (or those of us that just like taking long bike rides on the weekends) without getting slowed down.

We won’t see people swiping on their wrists down the Embarcadero just yet. The Commuter is set to launch this fall for $350.